She waited awhile before she rang him up again, but the line remained busy, and the call couldn’t connect.
She frowned and wondered why the call wasn’t answered, then she put down her phone and planned to call again tomorrow. It was possible that he had a bad signal in his area today.
She slept later during the two nights Cormac wasn’t around, she couldn’t get used to not having someone beside her.
Although she didn’t want to be a bother to him, Loredana couldn’t help but worry for his safety. She was afraid that he had met with some danger at his job.
No matter how long she laid in bed, she just couldn’t fall asleep. She really wanted to give him a call but hesitated in the end as she didn’t want to disturb him. She rolled in bed until the late hours, when she eventually fell asleep, and woke up really early in the morning.
However, the day that had just dawned wasn’t a normal one.
Something big happened in City B.
Many had gathered at the entrance of the city hall. Those people did not come from City B, but they were rural people who arrived from the mountainous areas.
The elderly people and mostly women were demanding an explanation from the Government and even held up banners.
It didn’t seem like an incident that would just happen overnight, someone must’ve planned for this demonstration. These group of people tip toed their way into City B and assembled in front of the City Hall, even the media only reported such a happening when they learnt about this at first hand.
A major media channel conducted a live interview at the scene, and a female reporter held a microphone in her hand while she interviewed someone.
“Excuse me, where are you from and why are you causing trouble here?”
The interviewee was a middle-aged woman in her forties. The woman was thin and had a dark skin, two children stood beside her. The woman spoke with a strong local accent, “We are not making any trouble.”
The reporter asked, “Then what are you doing here?”
The middle-aged woman explained, “We just want an explanation.”
The reporter questioned again, “What explanation are you seeking for?”
The middle-aged woman replied, “I am from X province N county, and my husband was an ordinary bricklayer. He was killed by a construction collapse fifteen years ago.”
The reporter had a puzzled expression, “An accident that happened fifteen years ago should have been resolved by the party who was responsible for the matter exactly fifteen years earlier, why have you come here?”
“It is because this was settled fifteen years ago.” this time the child who was who stood next to the middle-aged woman answered. She looked like a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old. She was only one or two years old when her father died, “The reason why we’re here is to report a senior officer who visited N county fifteen years ago to the Government.”
The reporter handed the microphone to the girl who was talking, “What on earth is going on, can you tell us why you want to report this officer?”
“I don’t think many people are aware about N county, it’s a relatively undeveloped area. Fifteen years ago, the Government dispatched a group of officers to inspect the countryside. In order to pass the inspection, the count magistrate searched for a group of artisans to build a school. At the time, we didn’t have a school in the area, the children in the village all learned from a sister who received education and they would go to her house. With no books or a blackboard, they depended on her knowledge that was delivered verbally, and they would just listen.
It was impossible to construct a school in such a short period, and everyone was unwilling to work under such time restrictions. They felt like they were doing more harm to their own children, a school is meant to be a place for them to learn after all. On the other hand, these officers couldn’t care less about their concerns, they would bring in their men to bash our homes and cause a scene. Thinking about how these officers would make our lives difficult, they were forced to start the project. The building materials that they had were of poor quality, and the scaffoldings and concretes collapsed halfway through construction. My father and four other constructors were killed in that incident.”
The reporter followed, “Why wasn’t there a school at the time? The higher ups would have funded for the institution.”
The teenager gave a crooked smile, “I think the funds ended up in someone’s pocket.”
What she said was vague but self-explanatory.
Everyone could tell what she meant by that.
The interviewer pressed on for more questions, “How was this matter handled during the time? Didn’t the inspectors resolve the issue on the papers?”
“It was already resolved. Not only did the inspector not take it to the papers, but even aided the culprit in concealing the truth.”
Up till that point, everyone already knew what this demonstration was all about.
“How was the issue settled then? Was there any compensation that was made to the deceased?” the reporter queried.
This time an elderly came up to the front and said, “Since when was there any compensation, and not only that, but they also forbade us from letting this news out. For anyone who opened their mouth about the matter, their houses would’ve been taken down.”
The reported widened her eyes upon learning such news, that was too much!
Technology wasn’t as advanced back then, there was no such thing as the internet. On top of that, they were in the mountainous areas, which was easily hidden from sight.
The elderly started to shed tears, “I only had one son, and his life was taken away in that accident. I want them to address this matter, apart from ignoring the issue, they punched and kicked us and threatened us with words.”
As the old woman lifted her sleeves, there was a big scar on his arm about ten centimetres long, “They did this to me with a hoe.”
Although the scar had healed, but due to improper treatment, it didn’t heal smoothly and looked rather hideous.
“We are all family members of the deceased at the time. We didn’t come to make any trouble or start an argument. Even though it has been a long time, we still want justice to be served for the ones who passed on.” The old woman wiped her tears, her face was full of wrinkles, and the palm of her hand was rough. No one could bear such a sight.
After the publicity by the media, the incident went viral in a mere two hours, and it the higher ups were quick to notice.
Netizens were deeply involved in the news, and they wondered who the officer in charge of the inspection was fifteen years ago.
This was what everyone was most concerned about, even the county magistrate at that time did not pay much attention to it. People hated those who helped the evildoer even more.
Someone deliberately circulated the information about the officer in charge then over the internet.
The net today was well established, thus the news got out so fast that it caught people off guard, it was impossible to make any cover ups anymore.
Once people started to pick up on the officer’s information, they would continue to dig deeper into the incident, they wanted to know about the wellbeing of that officer.
Everyone was more well informed now, they started to show indignance.
All kinds of thing had been said.
“Someone like that should just die already, how is this person worthy of serving the people? This is really the devil in disguise.”
“How did such a person secure his or her position today?”
A random person responded, “This person has no guilty conscience at all!”
“Such people are better off dead, that poor elderly! If this happened fifteen years ago, those kids were only one or two years old when they lost their father. At the same time, the wife had also lost her husband and the mother, her son. This is really tragic.”
“That’s right, I really want to kill these black-hearted bastards!”
“These people are not humans, but they are the devil. They oppressed the powerless and took advantage of them. They should have received punishment of the olden times, decapitation using five horse carriages.”
Very quickly the county-level officials at the time were also discovered. When the matter went out of control and spread too quickly, the higher ups were swift to calm the people down temporarily. They then announced that an investigation will take place, if this was true, the relevant officers would be severely punished!
Everyone commented one after another “I hope justice will be served!”
“I believe the Government will give us a satisfactory explanation. If this were to be true, I hope that person gets shot dead, this is detestable!”
Today was destined to not be an ordinary day, this incident has aroused the attention of everyone in the nation.
The Bailey family were also in a hot discussion on the matter.
New Book: Beginning with a Daring Encounter
Celsie was tired of being labeled as an introvert, workaholic, and dull virgin by her friends. Determined to prove them wrong, she made a bet that she would do something daring on her 25th birthday. Now that the day had arrived, it was time to fulfill her promise. On her daring to-do list, there was one task: a one-night stand with someone.